This Sunday, May 10, is Mother’s Day. This will be my sixth Mother’s Day without my mom. Since she passed away, the second Sunday in May has not been easy. No, it is not easy, but it is all in God’s hands, and I know everything is going to be OK.
This year will also be hard for our family because, as of last Sunday, it has been one year since we lost my mother-in-law. Over the past few weeks, knowing Mother’s Day was approaching, my mind has been filled with so many memories of both of them.
Every Sunday when I play drums at church, I can still hear my mother’s voice in my head saying, “Turn that racket down. Don’t play so loud. Close your bedroom door. What must the neighbors think?”
Actually, my mother could not have been more supportive. She was proud and happy when I started playing drums at church. To this day, I still occasionally run into former neighbors who ask if I still play the drums. It is my pleasure to say, “Yes!”
As I have written many times before, even though my wife and I did not get married until April 2023, we have been together since I was 17 and she was 14. That means I have known my mother-in-law since I was 17. Through the years, we were always close in a special way. She often relied on me to help with her projects, including work on her float while she served for many years as a float lieutenant for the Krewe of Gemini. Her projects usually involved hard work, but we always had a lot of fun, too.
I know there are many people like me who find themselves without a mother or mother-in-law to honor on Mother’s Day. If your mother or mother-in-law is still here, I sincerely hope you are able to spend time with her. For some, distance may make that difficult, but in today’s world, we are fortunate to have many ways to stay connected.
If your mom is still here, never let an opportunity to talk with her or spend time with her pass you by. If your mother is no longer here, please know that she is still with you and always will be. Either way, we should never forget the lessons our mothers taught us. Those lessons stay with us for the rest of our lives. By passing them along, our mothers live on in meaningful ways.
From the time I was very young, I have appreciated how my mother was there for me. As I have mentioned before, I am an only child. Spoiled? Well, not in my opinion, but I may be a little biased. My wife is also an only child. In fact, her father is an only child, and her mother and my father were only children, too. So, we have a lot of only children in our family. We consider ourselves experts on the subject, and not spoiled in any way. At least that is our story.
Forever ingrained in my memory are the band practices, music lessons and ball practices that would not have been possible without my mother driving me there. My wife can say the same about her mother. Like so many mothers, mine was glad when I learned to drive. She also cared for me through several injuries, most of them caused by my own poor decisions. Thank you for everything, Mom.
In recent days, my wife and I have talked about what I call the four C’s we experience as our parents age: concern, care, comfort and compassion. Our parents did so much for us as children and as adults. As the pendulum swings, it becomes our responsibility to do for them what they have always done for us.
No, we can never repay them, but we can make sure they know how much we appreciate their sacrifices. We should take every opportunity to let them know how much we love them.
A mother’s love never really leaves us. It stays in our hearts, our memories and the way we live.
Randy Brown is Regional Publisher and Executive VP of Specht Newspapers, Inc.